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Social media can level the playing field between industry leaders and upstarts, between multinational corporation executives and small-business owners, making peers of all participants. Yet appearances can be deceiving. To borrow from George Orwell’s Animal Farm, all social-media users are equal, but some are more equal than others.

The stereotypical entrepreneur talks to everyone easily, but introverts need not be discouraged. Reticence does not doom you to failure.

Social science finds at least a third, and maybe half, the population is introverted. Successful entrepreneurs who are introverts make their personalities work for them. With less interest in the spotlight than accomplishing goals, introverts are inclined to let talented employees run with their ideas. Here are five strategies for making introversion an asset.

Regardless of your definition of success, there are, oddly enough, a great number of common characteristics that are shared by successful businesspeople. You can place a check beside each characteristic that you feel that you possess. This way, you can see how you stack up. Even if you don’t have all of these characteristics, don’t fret. Most can be learned with practice and by developing a winning attitude, especially if you set goals and apply yourself, through strategic planning, to reach those goals in incremental and measurable stages.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained is often the philosophy of very successful entrepreneurs. Calculated risk takes courage and intelligence, but it also requires an ability to welcome the uncertainty that comes along with it.

There was no real reason that justified why we were the right people to start this company together. We had never worked together before, started a company or even knew how a custom apparel shop functioned.

Neither of us had relevant experience or the complementary skills that all successful startup founders share. We just did it because we had an opportunity, and it sounded like a good idea at the time.

We all define success differently. For some, it might be the ability to purchase a nice car or take a fabulous vacation. For others, it might mean being able to provide for one’s family. I think it’s important to take the time to explicitly define what success means to you. And of course, you don’t have to settle on just one definition.

Teresa McDowell is the founder of organic skin care business, Hemp Hemp Hooray. In the early years of her business, Teresa sold her products at markets while raising a young family. In the past two years Teresa has re-branded her range, built a new website and implemented an online store which has seen global online sales exceed their sales to retail outlets.

As a label, the word “entrepreneur” really is fascinating. When my friends and I were starting up our first Virgin businesses in the early ‘70s, no one seemed to understand what we were doing. Some important people called us entrepreneurs, but they used the word in a derogatory way, hinting that we were adventurers, out to upset the order of things, and perhaps not to be trusted. We certainly didn’t describe ourselves as entrepreneurs at that time, because that would have been met with some strange looks.

Emotional intelligence is an asset in all parts of life, none more so than in business.

Bosses with high EI will almost certainly have a big advantage in the heady corporate world as they are best equipped to bounce back from failures, embrace new technologies and market trends and lead from the front.

When it comes to the entrepreneurs that own the spotlight, we all know them by name. Zuckerberg, Spiegel, Sims — the CEOs of companies like Facebook, Snapchat andCodecademy – all have one thing in common.

They are the type of young, hot shot businessmen who the media has come to love, the likes of which lists like Forbes’ 30 under 30 were made for.

How to decide?
To decide on the best structure, you should think about:
– what sort of business you will establish;
– the expected income;
– the tax structure and how the business income will affect any personal income you have;
– what sort of personal liability you will have or are prepared to have;
– whether the nature of the business is risky and may be attacked by predators;

Finding a good mentor, however, can be harder than finding the right person to marry. You may get lucky and end up at a company with a formal mentorship program, but most organizations don’t have systematic mentoring efforts.

Revisiting any interview with the late Steve Jobs is bound to be an interesting experience. After all, the man who revolutionized the technology game with two stints at Apple was always known to have a knack for saying things that triggered the imagination and provoked greater thought than any of his other contemporaries.

You have to make the call you’re afraid to make.
You have to get up earlier than you want to get up.
You have to give more than you get in return right away.
You have to care more about others than they care about you.

LinkedIn is a powerful marketing tool, especially for B2B organisations. If you don’t have an active presence on LinkedIn you could be missing out on the opportunity to get your message in front of a large potential audience.

In today’s constantly changing marketplace, organisations can come and go with alarming rapidity.

Even apparently secure household names can end up at the bottom of the pile and with seemingly no warning. Over recent years we’ve seen a number of high profile brands become outdated and disappear in a very short space of time.

The speed at which businesses can go from being on top of their game to completely obsolete is something that all organisations should be aware of. If you want to make sure your business is around for the long haul, staying relevant should be a priority.

In today’s world, one of the best things you can do for your small business is take advantage of technology. Online software in particular plays a huge part in the business world – it will help your business organize its finances, find more customers, get more bang for buck and work better, faster, smarter and more productively. It’s likely that your competitors are enjoying the success that comes with getting online already – so what are you waiting for?

Let’s start the year off by focusing on the basics. Only you know exactly what 2013 was like – what you tried, what you avoided, how successful you were. But no matter what last year had in store for you, here are five things that you should be doing this year in order to drive more business:

Attention all Real Estate agents, Business Brokers & business minded people!
With the econonomy unstable people are leaning towards small businesses and franchises for job security. Houses aren’t selling, yet small businesses are.